Cocoon
“Now, you want to let the Spiral go?!” yells Dilasa.
“It has to die.”
“It’s already dead, Dilasa,” I answer quietly.
“The group mind is shattered, and the energy gone.”
“Only a few spirits remain.”
“I don’t care,” she says.
“Kill them all.”
“The remaining spirits are too weak to join together again, and they’ll never survive on their own.”
“They’re dying?”
“Yes, Dilasa.”
“They won’t last long.”
Lost Mayru
I return to Keesha’s ship, and share my memories of the Mayru, growers of stars, children of the star spirits.
“How will they help us defeat the Spiral, ina?” asks Dilasa.
“I don’t know,” I answer, frustrated, “but their destiny is tied up with ours.”
“Let’s look for a vision,” she suggests.
We enter the Dream Hunter gateway together, hunting for a vision about the Mayru.
The wanderer appears before us, seeding Sinesu with his children.
The past is clear, but their future is hidden.
“Why can’t we find their future, ina?” asks Dilasa, as we leave … Read more
A Good Death
Dilasa and I walk again on Sinesu, among shattered, blood-stained pieces of Sindar’s monument.
Nearby, one of the large, automated weapons sits, quiet and dark.
Part of the vision has come true
Wisten is dead and the monument gone, but the town survives with little damage, and we’ve driven away the hunters.
Star Map
Morning comes.
I walk around the starship as it rests on the sand, not far from the waves of the inland sea.
Mayla’s new design is fast, elegant, and beautiful.
The ship is eighty feet in diameter, reddish-gold, black, silver, and green.
When the city was built, no one planned to launch ships from here.
Still, there are a few open places in the city large enough for the ship: the sand, the ocean, and the flat roofs of several buildings.
Any of these would do, since we can take off from any surface, without damage … Read more
Away
Shazira is furious.
“You’re leaving?!”
I repeat what Mayla told us, and I try to explain, but Shazira continues to yell at me.
Tzina and Dilasa come to our room, surprised by the yelling they hear when I open the privacy shield.
Shazira stops when she sees the children.
“What’s wrong?” asks Dilasa quietly.
“Visions!” answers Shazira.
“What visions?” asks Tzina.
Shazira is silent.
She doesn’t want to speak to the children while she is so angry at me.
